Dubai: A Filipino driver faces 15 years in jail after a court convicted him of dumping his compatriot girlfriend's body along a road, after strangling her.
The Dubai Court of First Instance incriminated 36-year-old E.J., of premeditated murder, although he pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer defended in court that her client did not intend to kill his girlfriend and only beat her.
Defending E.J. earlier this month, the lawyer asked Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad to modify the charge from premeditated murder to ‘beating which led to death'.
The court, however, convicted E.J. of premeditated murder.
"The accused will be deported after serving his punishment," Presiding Judge Abdul Jawad said upon pronouncing yesterday's ruling.
E.J. pleaded innocent in court and denied planning E.A.'s murder.
Prosecutors charged E.J. with planning the murder by sitting in the back seat of a car and strangulating her [while she sat in the front seat] using what records described as a ‘piece of cloth or a nylon rope'.
"She is my friend… what happened is not as it was described in by prosecutors," E.J. said before he pulled up his sleeves showing what he described as E.A.'s nail marks on his arm because they had fought.
An Emirati first lieutenant testified that the body was found in Al Twar 1 area.
"Preliminary interrogations revealed that E.J. was involved in the murder.
"He claimed during interrogation that on the day of the incident he was present with E.A. He said they had a fight over money and then he strangled her with the belt that she wore… she fell to the floor.
"The defendant confessed that he took her body in his car and drove to meet a friend in Al Twar… the friend didn't show up and he dumped her body in front of a house then left," the first lieutenant said.
Records said that the defendant took away all of E.A.'s belongings that could help in identifying her.
